It has been far too long since my last blog post so I can only apologise and won’t bore you with excuses! I have still been baking and cooking lots but haven’t been doing too much creating but now I will be back in the full swing of it with new recipes and general health, nutrition and fitness tips. Especially as I am now taking an online nutrition course with Body Type Nutrition and loving it.
I have been incorporating a lot more protein into my diet since starting weight lifting at the beginning of the year. Using protein powders in place of flour in muffins, cakes, pancakes, breads etc is a great way to make a normal staple food (yes, cakes and pancakes are staple) into a more healthy high protein version with minimal change to the taste and texture.
These muffins are extra delicious as I have used chocolate brownie flavoured protein powder plus PB which I have only recently tried and found in the UK. It is a low fat powder version of peanut butter and is highly versatile and adds a scrummy peanut butter flavour to anything you fancy. It’s great in smoothies, pancakes and porridge and mixed into any savoury sauces also. The best thing is, it is 90% less fat and only 52 kcal in 2 tbsp than generic peanut butter!!! For a peanut butter fiend like myself, it’s perfect (just don’t eat the whole tub as they do slip a bit of sugar in there…!).
As they are high in protein they are great as a post-workout snack or a quick low calorie high protein breakfast on the go. These can be made vegan by using 2 bananas and an extra teaspoon of baking powder instead of egg whites and using soya yogurt instead of greek dairy yogurt. Also you can use chocolate hemp or pea protein powder instead of whey.
RECIPE:
Muffins:
1 banana peeled and mashed
6 egg whites
125g Total 0% Fage greek yogurt (or equivalent)
80ml maple syrup
60g oats
2 scoops of chocolate protein powder (approx 60g)
2 heaped tbsp of PB (optional)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
BANANA FUDGE ICING (optional):
1 ripe banana
5 medjool dates
1 1/2 tbsp almond butter
1/2 tbsp coconut oil
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 175C fan/200 conventional/gas mark 5.
Mash banana in one bowl and thoroughly mix in all the egg whites. Add and combine the yogurt and syrup.
Add all the dry ingredients one by one, stirring between each until mixed well.
Separate between 10-12 muffins cases set in a muffin tray (the number depends on how big you want your muffins to be).
Place in a preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and when you insert a knife into the centre it comes away clean.
While they are cooking make the icing. Simply place all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Try not to finish it all before the muffins are ready!
Once the muffins are cooked and cool, spread over the banana fudge icing.
Happy baking!
Nutritional info per muffin (without icing):
75kcal, 2g fat, 10g protein, 8g carbs
misc.muffins 